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millenniumdueled · 8 months ago

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The End of the World, Again: part 3

Yugi

Though he stands resolute, the Other Yugi feels his stomach drop as the knights are easily destroyed by the great serpent's attack.

If even their destined allies were useless then what was left?

The Leviathan doesnt give him time to consider his options.

Those tendrils wrap around his waist, pining his dominant arm to his side as they snatch him off his feet and drag him into the snake's body. What looked to be solid scales from so far below is amorphous up close, a body made of Darkness itself that threatens to absorb the three Duelists.

The Other Yugi freezes, only feeling himself sink further with every thrash or resistance. And he gasps.

Dartz isn't being dramatic.

He can hear them.

The muffled echoes of voices, familiar voices. Raphael. Mai. Weevil. And millions of others, all calling out, their words unclear but their voices distinct. He can hear them. He can feel them.

He can hear Joey shouting reassurance and encouragement to the souls, and his eyes go wide. Maybe! Maybe that's the key!

But as he opens his mouth to do the same, the viscous shadows overtake him. His words are cut short as he's dragged beneath the surface, into the belly of the snake.

No. No!! He was so close! He throws one hand out, fingers outstretched as he reaches for the light of day like a life preserver.

The last words he heard from Joey echo in his head, but how can he unite the souls now?

He can hear, feel their wailing all around, as if it's their tears and agony he's drowning in now. Their words muffled, lost in a discordant symphony of suffering.

His fingers start to relax. He feels himself start to sink, slowly.

"other me!!"" above the sea of suffering, he hears the familiar warmth of his Partner's voice, clear as a bell inside his heart. "you can't give up now, cmon!!"

"But how...?"

"if you can hear everyone's grief, then they can hear our souls yell too."

The Other Yugi goes quiet for a second. Then that hand still held above the surface of the beast clenches a fist.

"Everyone!!!! He can't open his mouth to yell. But he can scream the words inside his heart, the same silent way he communicates with his precious Partner. Maybe, if they both call out, maybe if they're loud enough, their other precious friends can hear him too.

"Joey! Kaiba!! Mai!! Raphael!! Rex, Weevil, Valon.... Everyone!! Every single one of you!! Listen to me!!!"

"don't give up!!!!!" Yugi's voice echoes.

Joey

"AAUUGH!?" Oh, Joey does not like this, the tacky-gooey feeling encasing him as he's slowly absorbed into the Leviathan. But he doesn't stop fighting. Even though it hastens his sinking. Which is probably why he goes under first.

It's so cold.

It's so quiet. The others' voices are quickly fading. Is this really it?

Did they really lose?

Joey tries to struggle more, but it's so cold. He can't feel his fingers. Soon he can't move them, either, a deep numbness setting in. The wailing voices are reduced to whispers. He can't even make out who is who anymore. He can't see.

He can't move.

They failed.

He failed...

"Everyone!!!!"

Yugi...? Even if he can't gasp, all his attention snaps onto this new voice, ringing out clear as if his friend were standing right in front of him. He doesn't know how to answer, but he focuses. Right, how could he be thinking it's over? He's not dead yet! And there hasn't been a god yet strong enough to keep Joey Wheeler down!

He can't move. But he smiles. Even if he can't see them, both Yugis are here. *"You got it, bud!"*

Seto

Seto struggles against the tendrils to the very last, utterly offended by the groping, dragging force daring to touch him, to grab him and drag him into itself. Disgusting. His own thrashing and various shows of force against the ropes of darkness only make him sink faster, and before he realizes, Seto is already trapped up to his waist.

As the others hear them, Seto thinks he hears someone specific, as well: "Alister?" He punches another tendril off of his arm, even as the others wrap onto other pieces of him that aren't fighting back. "Damnit! This can't be the darkness in every sacrificed soul- unless that darkness is being empowered somehow?!"

Dartz deigns to answer him, toying with his food in its final moments before it joins him and his God.

"Oh, yes, Seto; no matter how much anyone refuses to acknowledge it, as long as someone has fears, or anxiety, or anger, any scrap of darkness in their hearts will rekindle and grow inside of them until it consumes them! They were already lost to it- you are already lost to it, Seto Kaiba, Yugi Muto, Katsuya Jonouchi! There is no use in tiring yourselves out before the end, for resistance is useless against the tide of the world's dark hearts."

Joey fights that idea in his usual brash way, his low-class vernacular making his shouts almost comical when contrasted with their situation. It doesn't really help, either. Seto can't turn his head to see Yugi anymore, once Joey is sucked into the beast. With his last free breath, Seto calls to the soul he recognizes in the mix. "Alister- you're really giving up now, after everything?" He wanted to say something to Yugi, but doesn't have the chance before the cold darkness overcomes him and snuffs out the lights.

The voices are actually a little quieter inside, more a murmured cacophony than specific voices in a crowd of conversation. It's almost comforting, in a way- like background noise that would help one fall asleep. But Yugi's bright will cuts through.

It's all Seto can do to hold on to the last ounces of his strength, bolstered by his rival's urging. You had better have a solution to this...! In the dark, his fists clench.

Yugi

At first, the Yugi's cries seem to go unanswered, seemingly swallowed and silenced by the crushing Darkness. The Pharaoh feels his heart start to sink again. But then there's his bright and hopeful Partner, crying out again for everyone.

And this time, another voice penetrates the oppressive shadows. He swears it's Joey.

And then another. Kaiba?

The Other Yugi keeps that fist clenched above the surface of their shadowy prison.

"Don't think about the Darkness in your hearts. Don't think about the pain, or the lonliness!!" the Other Yugi demands.

"remember the happiest memories of your lives!!! everyone!! there might be darkness in our hearts, but there's light in every soul too!!!! every person whose ever made you smile or laugh!!! every sunrise! your favorite food, your favorite book or movie--"

"Focus on that light!!! It's impossible to get rid of every shadow in your heart... But even the smallest glimmer of light is enough to weaken the Darkness that surrounds you!!!"

"you can do it!! i believe in every single one of you!!! we can still win, we can still escape!!! think of all the lives and souls we can save still!!!! but we have to do it together!!!!!"

The Other Yugi swears the shadows don't feel so cold now.

Seto

Golden lights begin floating up, out of the darkness, toward the Yugis and into their Duel Disk. Each is the light in one person's soul, like lanterns of hope, illuminating their struggle and offering what power they have to give in assisting their would-be hero. Even Seto gives Yugi his strength before it can be consumed, practically swooping toward him and disappearing into his Deck.

They seem to be empowering something.

Yugi can feel it...

The God Cards! Their powers are returning to them, thanks to the light of so many hearts!

Dartz feels something amiss. His control over the situation, over his Leviathan, is slipping. He feels like he drank something carbonated that didn't agree with him.

Dark Magician Girl, still rallying the Duel Monsters against the Dark God, can see what's happening and tells them all to lend their strength to her Master, too! Thousands more glowing spheres flow into Yugi's Deck.

Joey

Focus on the happy memories...? Of course. To fight the darkness in the Leviathan, is to fight the darkness in their hearts. And that's to use light.

Joey puts every last bit of concentration on it. Relives Yugi getting standing up for him, days spent with his sister, Mai giving him the card he needed to fight in the finals at Duelist Kingdom... Moving out of his father's. Sneaking into Yugi's hospital room so they could chat after the fire. The noogies, play fights, teasing. Their first kiss. And their first kiss. And second, and third.

Take every last bit of strength and light he has, use it to fight.

Yugi

The dissonant wails and cries of the suffering souls quiets down in waves. Admittedly, the Yugis had expected the voices to grow clearer, and the two go silent in return, nervous.

But there's no doubt about it. The cold, clammy embrace of the Darkness that surrounds him is warmer now.

The Other Yugi's eyes go wide as, one by one, gold lights streak their way through the viscous body of the Leviathan. Each one shoots up, up, up and out of the Darkness, breaking free of the surface to land inside the DuelDisk clasped to his fist held aloft.

He hears Joey's voice. Kaiba's. Mai's. Raphael's, Valon's, Alister's. Maybe a million more he cannot name, all putting their faith, their light, their trust in him. He hears the voice of the Dark Magician Girl. Of the Legendary Knights. Of every monster on their side.

Beams of bright, golden light pierce the scales of the great Leviathan.

The Other Yugi struggles against the strength and weight of the sperpent's amorphous body, against the Darkness of humanity that tries so hard to drown him. He doesn't need to get his head above the surface, he just needs enough strength to break his right hand through.

"Please!!! Give me your strength!!!!!!" he begs as he strains his fingers, just enough to draw

three

cards

It's like a bomb goes off.

The golden light makes the sky go black around it, the great snake disappearing into the contrast.

The three Chosen Duelists hit the ground of Atlantis with meaty *thuds*.

It takes a second or two for the Other Yugi to get his bearings, to open his eyes and push himself up from the cold ground. But as he blinks the dark spots away from his vision, he gasps at the sight overhead.

The great beast Leviathan still looms, but the scales that cover its body stand out, protruding like a pinecone. Blown out from the inside. It heaves its labored breaths as it stares down the enemies hovering across from it now.

The three gods, Obelisk, Slifer, and the Winged Dragon of Ra.

"That's impossible--!!" he hears Dartz shout.

But the Pharaoh wastes no time with such bewilderment. He orders the gods to attack.

The injured snake tries to flee, darting up into the clouds. But the gods follow on its tail.

All the Other Yugi can do now is watch the sky.

Bursts of gold, red, blue, and black illuminate and darken the silhouettes overhead. And once again, the two find themselves focusing their concentration, their hopes, and wishes, and prayers as one.

The chaos overhead seems to go silent.

For a moment, they both hold their breath. Inside their shared heart, they take each other's hand.

This is it.

This is the moment of truth.

The fate of the entire world.

The clouds are blown apart.

But the Other Yugi plants his foot, narrows his eyes at the enormous snake and its unsightly growth. How can they be evenly matched? Even after all that damage the Leviathan had taken, being blown apart from inside?

He clenches his fist. "we can't give up now, we're so close!!" Yugi's voice resonates inside his heart.

The Other Half gasps.

Once more, the sky glistens with rainbow auroras. Without an army of monsters behind her now, the Dark Magician Girl appears again. She hovers in the air, not quite able to fly high enough to meet the gods. But she doesn't need to. And here, she goes unseen by the Leviathan as she readies her staff.

If the gods and snake were evenly matched, even the smallest push could tip the scales.

The Other Yugi can barely make out her form, so small and high above him. But he can see the pinpoint of pink light beading at the tip of her staff. It rapidly grows brighter, a small sun in the sky.

The tension between the two attacks starts to waver, pushing first toward the gods, then back at the Leviathan.

And that's when she fires her attack.

As the pink star bursts against the snake's black body, the Leviathan's attack fizzles out. The sky goes white, and the Other Yugi is knocked off his feet by the force, even so very far below.

It takes a moment for him to find his breath and the strength to lift his head. Every muscle of his body aches. There's still spots in his vision as Yugi blinks his eyes open to a blue sky, clear of any gods, snakes, or monsters. Only shimmering orbs of light that fall like a rainstorm of feathers from the heavens above.

"we did it..." he gasps breathlessly. "we won?!"

There's little time to get his bearings, though, as the ground beneath him starts to shake. As the buildings of an ancient city begin to crumble around him, Yugi gasps as he realizes.

With its god destroyed, the floating island is slowly beginning to fall from the sky.

Joey

Joey comes to just before he hits the ground. Not exactly the most fun thing in the world, but even that was better than the cold numbness in the Leviathan.

And speaking of the Leviathan, it looked... like it was dying. "ALRIGHT!!!" he hollers, before hopping back up to his feet. He cheers at the attack, but grows tense as the outcome grows uncertain. "C'mon... C'mon...!"

He doesn't see Dark Magician Girl, focused on the battle as he was. Joey barely has time to register this new pink beam, before everything explodes.

When he hears Yugi, he cracks an eye open. No gods. No Leviathan.

"We won! WE WON!!" Joey laughs in relief, all but lunging for the other two men with him. His hug attack is prevented, however, as he stumbles from the ground shakes. "Oh, shit, okay, time to go! Where was that portal again?"

(( thanks again to @redeyesandchilifries and @blueeyesking !!!!! ))

#ooc #plot #arc: what the doma?!#[end]#idk it feels like an awkward way to just End but also #it took a lot to get here so I'm just glad we finally made it!!!!!!!!!!#and I just #can't have this go on any longer I rly want my blogs active again shjsjqoaksjdb #ANYWAY #once again the day is saged #SAVED #lol #I was going to make a drabble out of this but I was realizing it would just basically be #my posts verbatim and everybody elses' summarized and that felt Shitty like everybody deserves to have their great writing shown off too #SO #we agreed this is a good place to End #we the little anime style comedic fade out

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ultravioart · 2 years ago

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????

So I'm trying to write out some ideas for Dominion au scenes and I guess I'm questioning what kind of humor fits Dominator? She's definitely comically evil + mean spirited so there is dark humor galore (Plus with kid cosmic using death as a punchline, lmafo it makes for some dark opportunity),

but if.... sighes, If the writers really were trying to go for the "she doesn't belong in the show" anime-op-badass "sexy bully"(<<<gags I hate this approach i hate sexy bully) archetype, I have to wonder if she's conscious of herself in situations or not. In Q&A they say she loves riot grrl but she's also fine with using a guy persona to "mess with people"?? Mess with them how? Make them double take and awkwardly scramble to treat her differently? Or make them not judge her as a (gender) but as a badass foe first and foremost regardless, and being a woman is just the cherry on top? I have to wonder if her love for the riot grrl genre includes the fundamental girl empowerment (proud to be a girl), or the "don't judge me just because I am a girl! I belong here too!" aspect. Is her perspective that she is proud to be a badass woman, or does she feel she's a badass who happens to be woman therefore women must be great? She seems to use whatever tools she has at her disposal, but also has a comedic self care routine of fluffy towels and pink guest bathrooms. So she's all out evil villain, but also has sensitivities and seemingly personal boundaries with "me-time" which doesn't read entirely as the all out off the wall destroyer, but a quirky lethal evil conqueror. It matters because like, would she be a "sexy" bully that has personal boundaries over her body, or is it all in, make the others squirm and yelp? Is she vulgar and unhinged? or does she have some kind of pride that would prevent her from "degrading" her self in her view by flirting with people she sees as losers? We have characters that have a sense of pride or a sense of boundary, which can make for good kind spirited humor too, but if Dominator really doesn't belong, it's hard to discern just how far her actions would go. basically it's one of the two: A) she embodies the "intensely evil little girl" all grown up into a fearsome villainess, playing godzilla with living toys. This is within the same vein to Hater's "spoiled brat emo prince" all grown up into a manchild rockstar tyrant personality. This means she would have some personal boundaries and sense of pride, meaning she would toy with others (flirting, teasing) but not be intensely vulgar. Fits the setting of WoY pretty well, though? Is... being pretty and mean enough to be a sexy bully archetype? Ugh Man, I hate this trope lmao. It feels gross. B) She embodies the "evil no matter what" and just happens to be a woman. she relishes in bullying others and making them squirm, wanting to destroy everything in her path. She's super unhinged and even self-destructive if not careful. No sense of sympathy for others, she just. wants. to. destroy. those puny little faces. (Cute aggression over 9,000!) And it's bleak! Yeah! ...and, lonely. Woops. This means she would be very vulgar, and not care what people think about her or her body because of course she's already perfect, she's HER. This to me reads as more so the sexy bully archetype, but ignores some semblance of her softer sides like her "...friend?" moments with Sylvia or her funny reactions to things like "what? Ew--no." which imply personal boundaries. I'm writing a whole damn essay about this because I don't want to make her too vulgar if it's ooc. But... it's seriously hard to understand what the hell the writers even meant by "sexy bully" because is that just a hot mean girl? Or a get under your skin and twist the knife just "to break your heart and watch you cry" kinda thing??? HOW FAR DOES IT GO, idk idk. Frankly I wish canon Dominator was not fanservice sultry and only sporadically "maniac pixie nightmare girl" like the VA's videos implied, because that stuff was hysterically fitting for WoY. Unhinged and unfitting of the WoY universe, but in a light goofy turning instantly heavy and dark humored way.

#dominion au #woy #this is not pg due to the weird archetype mentioned #at the same time it's funny to play with expectations so like? is dominator dedicated to the bit???#would she do completely unhinged things just for a laugh or is there a limit to the meaness?#i can definitely see dom rubbing it in hater's face that peepers is her minion now #but how far would she go to mess with hater?#she's on a vengeance streak so would she dig the knife deep as possible or would she think it beneath her to stick to a bit just to torture #lord hater? Idk this is hard to figure out lmao #i don't want to make a woy character too vulgar if its too ooc #bc even wander making those jokes in the big day did not sit right with me #felt awkward and more like writters placing the joke than wander being in on it #bc wander is pretty smart so his awkward phrasing is on purpose and good humor #but when it gets MUCH too suggestive its just. odd. doesn't feel like it fits his character.#it feels ooc and out of place for woy #but dominator is supposed to be “out of place” for woy so???? augh lmao #help........... sobs

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